The Naked (by Urban Decay) Effect

I am sure that you’ve read all the reviews out there about ALL the Naked Eyeshadow Palettes.  After reading and watching (what feels like EVERYONE’S) opinion about the palettes… I have come to one single conclusion… choosing a favorite palette is VERY personal!  I think the folks over at Urban Decay did a great job with the original Naked Palette – and my personal favorite.  However, I have read everything from Naked 2 being the favorite or Naked 3 being the new front runner.  What I do know is that the MAKE-UP HOARDER in me couldn’t live without having all of the palette’s in my possession!

 

Naked 3 – The newest girl on the block

 

The Naked 2 Palette – The Middle Child

 

The Original Naked Palette – My personal favorite!

All of the palettes have a LOVELY color and pigmentation and come with some good shadows and shadows that I don’t really use on a regular basis.  I guess you win some and you lose some.  There are some similarities and very “slight” differences in each palette.  Take for instance in the Naked 2 Palette – my most used shades are Tease (which makes a great crease color) and Foxy which I use as an allover lid color.  It gives off a more natural effect for when you have wake up early in the morning and need to look more awake! 

Like I said before – these palettes are of a personal preference – those Naked “virgin’s” out there (and I know there are a few of you) should probably go and test drive each palette at your local Ulta or Sephora to find which one works best for your skin tone.  $50 bucks, while not a bad deal for the amount of product you’re getting, is still a hefty price tag!

Enjoy!
xoxo

The Land of Cream Eye Shadows

Cream eye shadows are all the rage out there in Beauty-land… While my collection is VERY modest, I wanted to impart some thoughts out there to ladies that are thinking of venturing into the land of Cream Eye Shadows.

Maybeline Color Tattoo’s makes what I think are the best cream eye shadows.  Where they SHINE – literally – are when they add a little bit of shimmer to it. I like the “Tough as Taupe” color, it brings an added bonus to a smokey eye.  However the “Bad to the Bronze” color is amazing and especially for the really lazy days when you don’t want to fiddle with your eye make up.  I am a FAN of these type of cream eye shadows… I am SUCH a fan that I even went out of the “box” and bought a goldey color from Sigma in the eye shadow base collection called Unveil.  I have heard some mixed reviews about their cream eye shadows… however, I really like the shadow!  Even with the goldey color I slap that sucker on my eyes and it looks like I spent longer than the 2 minutes (half asleep) on my make up.  It looks like I shall be expanding my collections!  I think Flower Cosmetics by Drew Barrymore offers a great selection of cream eye shadows!

Enjoy!
xoxo

October Favorites

October has come and gone.  Probably one of the best October’s that I’ve seen in awhile.  I started planning for a wedding, I celebrated my Dad’s 59th birthday, I started my new job.  All in all a pretty good month!  So this stellar month, I figured I would give you a list of my favorite things!

1. Sonia Kashuk – Duo Fibre Blush Brush: I use this brush pretty much exclusively as a blush.  I started using it for my cream blushers and I loved the flushed effect that it gave me and I pretty much started using it for all of my blushes!  I really need to clean it soon!
2. Sigma E25 Eye Shadow Brush:  I mentioned this brush on my favorite eye brushes post.  It’s totally worth the 10 bucks – heck I think I might spring for the Coastal Scents brush that sets you back $6 dollars.  During the early mornings before I head over to work this all purpose brush shaves a few minutes off of my “getting ready”… which affords me a little extra beauty sleep!
3. Urban Decay Primer Potion:  This old faithful product in it’s original packaging ( I bought it on sale at Nordstrom Rack) was collecting dust in my make up drawer.  I took it out in June for a wedding I attended and it held up in the heat of June… so I kept using it.  I want to use it up to buy one in normal packaging.
4. Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara:  New Holy Grail Mascara???? Quite possibly.  I have one more tube of Rimmel to go and I think I am going to purchase this mascara again.  I love the natural effect it gives you and the lashes are flexible while not flaking!
5. YSL Touche Eclat: This is relatively new to my repertoire and it just changes my face from looking deeply sleep deprived to some sort of functioning human being.  I am a huge fan of this – I have been using the teeniest bit every day and I hope that I can extend the life of the product – but hey if I use it than it’s not a waste of money, right????
6. Marc Jacobs Color Eye Con No 7 in Tease: Now I didn’t think that the colors in this palette would translate well for a working gal like yours truly.  However, I tried it out a couple of times in October… and by a couple i mean every day for at least two weeks!  The middle color and the pink are a perfect fit for an all over lid color and a highlight.  I also like the darker fuchsia pink color as a wash on the crease.

Here is to a fantastic November.  And let me know your favorite things from October!  I can’t wait for some American Thanksgiving!  Turkey Here I COME!!!

xoxo

Cult Beauty Product – Walking on Eggshells

I wanted to see what all the hype is about with the Walking On Eggshells trio by Wet N Wild.  I have been hearing about these eyeshadows for ages and I finally buckled and spent the (OUTRAGEOUS) amount of $2.99 at CVS… I know… I know…

I have rambled on and on about the texture and the quality of Wet N Wild eyeshadows, so I won’t got into it… if you want to hear how I feel check out the link here.

Now on to the Walking on Eggshells trio.  I was a little wary about it because the colors are so light and I wasn’t sure how it would read on my skintone.  To be honest with you, I wasn’t WOWED by it and I am not sure why it’s such a great buy?  Well it did only cost $3 bucks, while the crease color is great and I will use it.  I think the problem is that the color’s were too light for my skintone.  I will check back in the winter when I am a little paler!

I had such high hopes for this palette.  I did pick up another trio and it looks more promising… post on that later!

xoxo

Marc Jacobs Beauty – Color Eye Con No. 7 Review

I have been waiting for the Marc Jacobs beauty line to be released for ages.  Sephora announced it through twitter months ago and I have been patiently waiting for the line to be released.  So when I received the email to VIB Beauty Insiders (aka… you spend waaaay too much money at Sephora) I pounced at the chance to pick up something!

Soooo… I purchased the Color Eye-Con (get it?) No. 7 in the color Tease.  I have heard some mixed reviews about the packaging of their eye shadows.  It is a bit different from the traditional eye make up palettes, but that’s why I really like it – it doesn’t take up too much room in your make up bag – and if you’re really looking to save space – you can drop this into a long make up brush bag and you’re done  It’s long and super sleek… I am a fan!

This a departure from the neutral browns, taupes that I usually purchase (go me!) although there are some neutral’s included in the palette, there are also some purple’s and pinks to test out too!  The quality of the eye shadows are really good (as they should be!!!)  The shadows are buttery and very pigmented…. VERY Pigmented.

The swatches above were done with one swipe of the eye shadow brush.  As you can see the colors are very pigmented… so a light hand (especially with the four darker colors) wouldn’t hurt… or blend, blend, blend!  The highlight colors (the three in the middle) are very lovely and you can probably get away with using them all over the lid with a nice crease color also.  I would suggest using a heavy duty make up remover, I swatched this before I met a friend for lunch and after my shower (which I scrubbed my arm) there was still a hint of the darker color on my wrist!

All in all, I think that this palette was well worth it for me!  As we move into October and November, I have made a promise with my friend Pia not to purchase a single beauty product or go shopping for handbags or clothes… so there will be a lot of “Shopping My Stash” posts coming up!

Enjoy!
xoxo

You Fail… Beauty Products

So whilst on this journey of finding holy grail beauty products, I have stumbled upon a few things that are not so holy.  In fact they are more like colossal failures – at least for me.  I do troll the blogs and YouTube videos for inspiration and that can sometimes get me into trouble… so here are a few beauty products that just didn’t “DO IT” for me.

Well, here goes nothing…

Maybelline New York Lip Gloss – I was in Germany for work.  I was traveling through Southwestern Germany to various locations.  I thought to myself, why not test out some of these MNY products they were pushing…. I was on a mission to find a dupe for Nars Orgasm lip gloss (which I have since fallen out of love with) This lipgloss is the poster child for everything that you hate about lipgloss, it is sticky, sticky, sticky there was way TOO much glitter and will make you look like a 5 year old girl when you slap that sucker on.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Tokyo Milk – I had hight hopes to achieve a beautiful nude lip with this lip cream from NYX.  I purchased a beautiful matte fuchsia color that I wore for a party and it was gorgeous… it lasted through dinner and all night.  That did NOT happen with this matte lip color.  It was too light for my skin color and was lighter than my skin color so… no nude lippy for me!

Maybelline Lip Butters (Creme Brûlée, Candy Apple, Creamsicle) – I really wanted to like this… REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to love this.  It was a great idea in theory.  However, it just didn’t work for me.  (Things I have discovered… I am particularly picky about lip products).  Maybe I have to try different colors, the Creme Brulee shade was way too light and it looked way to frosty and just reminded me of the 80’s.. YIKES

Nars Lipstick in Corinthe  – To be fair, I did purchase this lipstick a few years ago.  I was in a Sephora induced haze with a friend and she convinced me this color looked great on me… It didn’t.  If you’re old enough to remember the brown lipsticks from the early 90’s – this is what it looked like on me… I made it work with a wash of lip gloss on top of the lip stick – but alas it wasn’t good enough.  It wasn’t creamy or easy to apply.  Just an all around mistake…

Urban Decay Ammo (Original Packaging) Palette – Let’s just keep the PEER PRESSURE PURCHASES going…  I only like three shades in this palette that made it worth the purchase (Smog, Chopper, and Sin) – however, the rest of the palette was kind of a wash…. I should have known better when I was in the Sephora pulling the trigger, however, I was with a friend and she was insisting that I buy it… we are no longer friends.  The other colors like Shattered and Grifter remind me of 80’s style make up.  This isn’t a knock on the quality of the eye shadows… it’s more on the colors from this palette.

Cera Ve Broad Spectrum Sunscreen – I bought this a few months ago before a trip to the beach.  I wanted to have a sunscreen for my face.  I read reviews that the regular moisturizer was great!  When I didn’t want to drop the $40 bucks for the La Roche Posay facial sunscreen, I paid $12 bucks for the Cera Ve brand.  It claimed to have “Invisible Zinc” (which is the white stuff that life guards put on their nose to protect from the sun) Let’s just say it is NOT as invisible as it claims… Ghost Face galore – however it did protect from the sun… I will probably use this till it’s all done and go back to my Neutrogena!

Josie Maran Bear Naked Wipes –  You may have read my review on the Bear Naked Wipes and I pretty much feel the same way with the nail wipes.  I am not a fan of the 3 in 1 or 2 in 1 types of products.  Maybe I am old fashioned… but I like my products to do one thing and one thing REALLY well… there are things like Argan Oil that does many things… but that is because the product is so versatile.  These wipes DO NOT take off nail polish… maybe the top coat… I have reserved to using this as just a cuticle and nail treatment but that’s about it!

NYC Eyeshadow Triple Shadows for Sexy Babe’s Eyes Only (L – R: Velvet Blue, Ocean Frost, Space) – Just disregard the name… What was I thinking with the colors???  I thought that I should do something different from my constant purchasing of neutral eye shadows so why not go with Blue?  The good news is that I only purchased it for $4 bucks.  Like the Urban Decay Palette the quality of the shadows are very good (like all NYX shadows) however… what was I thinking?!

Rinse Skin Stick in Ginger Lemongrass – This was a great concept.  When I used to travel a lot for work I bought this to get through security.  The idea is that the body heat would melt the shea butter and oils and moisturize your skin.  Such a disappointment.  I prefer my lotion in liquid form… it feels like rubbing chapstick on your skin and it only moisturizes sections of it… not cool.

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo

Sleek iDivine Palette | Au Naturel 601

I bought this Sleek iDivine Palette in Au Naturel 601 through Amazon last month.  I have been eyeing this palette for quite sometime.  I was feeling a bit cheeky when I bought it, because like MOST people, I like to see, touch, and swatch my make up… however, the Sleek brand is only sold (in stores) in the UK.  So I took a chance and bought the Au Naturel palette ( I thought it was the safest palette).  It set me back about $13.99 plus $2.50 in shipping and handling.

Top Row (L – R): Nougat, Nubuck, Cappuccuno, Honeycomb, Toast, Taupe
Bottom Row (L-R): Conker, Moss, Bark, Mineral Earth, Regal, Noir

Now that the business part of the blog is over on to more important things.  How I feel about the eye shadows.  12 shadows come in each palette.  Half of the shadows are matte and the other half have some shimmer.  The stand out shadows for me are Toast, Taupe, and Bark.  My first impressions are this would be fantastic for a smokey eye and evening look.  However, if you could blend out to make for a classic day time look.  I wore some Nubuck and Toast all over my lid with a was of Taupe to add shimmer.

Each shadow is buttery and SUPER pigmented.  So if you’re trying a day time look – just remember to blend, blend, blend and a light hand wouldn’t hurt or else you will end up looking like you’re doing the “walk of shame” to work.  I also think that quality of the shadows are also worth the extra $2.50 on shipping and handling.  I do have one dislike and that is the white Nougat shade.  It doesn’t really do anything as a highlight color and is just an “meh” as an inner corner eye shadow shade.

Do you have experience with Sleek make up?  Let me know what you think?